"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45
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Content Book 4
John the Evangelist's words to the bride
about how no good deed goes unrewarded,
and about how the Bible excels all other writings,
and about the king - robber, traitor, prodigal, and so forth,
and about St. John's advice to the king,
and about how he should scorn riches and honors
for the sake of God.
The bride's amazing and remarkable vision and God's explanation of it.
According to the explanation,
the baptized are symbolized by an animal, the heathen by a fish,
and God's friends by three crowds of people.
A wonderful conversation between God and the bride
by way of question and answer. It concerns the king
and his hereditary rights and those of his successors in the kingdom,
and also how some territories should be reclaimed
by the successors in the kingdom and some not.
God's words to the bride about two spirits,
good and bad; and about the remarkable and useful struggle
in the mind of a certain lady arising from the inspirations
of the good spirit and from the temptations of the evil spirit;
and about what choice should be made in these matters.
The words of St. Peter to the bride
about how he desired the salvation of peoples;
and his advice to her about obtaining remembrance,
and about the great miracles that are yet to be fulfilled
in the city of Rome.
St. Paul tells the bride the noble story
about how he was called by God through the prayers
of Blessed Stephen, and about how the wolf became a lamb,
and about how it is good to pray for everyone.
A wonderful and remarkable vision
about a soul who is to be judged and about
the devil's accusations and the glorious Virgin's intervention.
The explanation of this vision denotes heaven by a palace,
Christ by the sun, the Virgin by a woman,
the devil by an Ethiopian, the angel by a knight.
It mentions two irremediable places of punishment
and a third, a remediable one, as well as many other wonderful things,
suffrages in particular.
The angel's words to the bride
about the meaning of the punishment of a man's soul
judged by God in the above chapter;
and also about the lessening of the punishment
because he had spared his enemies before death.
The angel's words to the bride about the judgment
of God's justice against the above mentioned soul,
and about the satisfaction to be made in this life
for this soul while in purgatory.
Christ's complaint to the bride about the Romans,
and about the cruel sentence Christ hands down against them,
should they die in their sins.
St. Agnes's words of praise and blessing
to the glorious Virgin herself, and about how she prays
to the Virgin for the daughter, and about the answer
of the Lord and of his sweet Virgin and
their consoling words to the bride,
and about this world as symbolized by a pot.
The Virgin Mother's words to the daughter
about the vicissitudes of God's friends in this world,
who are at times spiritually distressed and at other times comforted,
and about the meaning of spiritual distress and comfort,
and about how God's friends must rejoice
and be comforted in their time.
Christ's words to the bride as to which tears
are acceptable to God and which are not,
and about what kind of alms should be requested
or given to the poor for the sake of departed souls,
and about Christ's advice and exhortation to the bride.
Christ's comforting words to the bride in her fear,
telling her not to be afraid of what she has seen and heard,
because it comes from the Holy Spirit,
and about the devil as symbolized by a snake and a lion,
the consolation of the Holy Spirit as symbolized by a tongue,
and about how to resist the devil.
Christ's words to the bride about why the good suffer
in this life while the bad prosper, and how God shows
her through a parable that he sometimes promises
temporal goods but that these should be taken
to mean spiritual goods, and about why God has not predicted
every single event to happen at particular times,
although all times and seasons are known to him.
The Virgin tells the daughter
how the devil often cunningly leads one and another
of God's servants beneath the veil of devotion
in order to cause them distress, and to which people
indulgences are granted, and she uses a goose
to symbolize how the church is constituted
and a hen to symbolize God, and she explains
which people deserve to be called God's little chickens.
St. Agnes's excellent instruction to the daughter
about living in a good and praiseworthy fashion,
and about avoiding a bad life displeasing to God.
A carriage symbolizes here fortitude and patience;
its four wheels symbolize these four virtues:
the complete surrender of everything for God's sake,
humility, loving God wisely, and restraining the flesh discerningly.
Certain other things are also added
about members of religious orders.
The daughter's words of praise to the glorious Virgin,
and the gracious response of the Virgin to the daughter.
In it the Virgin grants her daughter many graces
as well as many other good things
both from herself and from the apostles and saints.
The daughter's words to the Lady in praise
of her virtue and beauty, and the Virgin's answer
confirming her praise, and the Son's comparison
of his Mother to a goldsmith.
St. Agnes's lesson to the daughter
about not relapsing and not advancing properly,
and about the right way to begin or continue with abstinence,
and about what kind of continence is pleasing to God.
The bride's words to God concerning
his virtue and splendor, and the Virgin's consoling answer
to the daughter, and about how God's good servants
should not stop preaching and admonishing people,
whether the people convert or not;
the Virgin shows this by means of a comparison.
About how human malice in modern times
surpasses the cunning of the devil,
and about how people are now quicker to sin
than the devil is to tempt, and about the sentence pronounced
against such people, and how God's friends should labor
with courage and haste in their preaching;
also, concerning the infusion of knowledge in God's friends.
The words of John the Evangelist
to the glorious Virgin about a mere sinful hypocrite,
and the Virgin's answer regarding his characteristics,
and about the devil's deceptions toward him,
and about how the good spirit is recognized by seven signs
and the bad spirit is discerned by as many signs.
The Virgin's words to the daughter
about how God's servants should behave toward impatient people,
and about how pride is likened to a vat.
The Mother's admonishment to the daughter
about how a person should not pay attention to carnal desires
but should nourish the body on a moderate diet of necessities,
and about how a person should stand
by his or her body but not in the body.
The Virgin's admonition to the daughter
about which virtuous acts merit eternal life and which do not,
and about the great merit there is in obedience.
The Virgin's complaint to the daughter
about a man of counterfeit devotion,
comparing him to a poorly armed squire
in a physical battle.
The Virgin's words about three kinds of hardship,
symbolized by three kinds of bread.
The Mother's words to the daughter
about how there are devils to make people fall,
others to slow down their progress,
and still others to tempt them in fasting,
and about the way to oppose these devils.
The Mother's words to the daughter about how
the precious and beautiful things of the world
do not harm God's servants, even though
they make use of them, so long as they use them in God's honor,
and she points to the example of Paul.
The Mother's words to the daughter showing her,
by means of a comparison, that God's preachers and friends
will not receive a lesser reward in God's sight
if people are not converted by the preaching they have done
with an upright intention than they would
if the people do convert.
The Mother's words to the daughter
about her infinite mercy toward sinners
and toward those who praise and honor her.
The bride's notable words about the city of Rome.
They take the form of an inquiry,
pointing to the Romans' earlier consolation,
devotion, and good order, among both clerics and lay people,
and asking why all this has now sadly been turned
into desolation and disorder and abomination,
as is clear from all the aforesaid,
and about how unhappy Rome is
both materially and spiritually.
The bride's vision about various punishments
being prepared for a certain soul as yet alive in body,
and about how all these kinds of punishments,
if his soul should be converted before death,
would be converted into the greatest honor and glory.
The bride's words to Jesus Christ
about her desire for the salvation of souls,
and the answer given her through the Holy Spirit,
namely that people's excesses and superfluity
in food and drink are an obstacle to the visitations
of the Holy Spirit given to them.
God's words to the bride about how the religious
used to enter monasteries out of holy fear and divine charity,
but now God's enemies, that is, false religious,
go off into the world out of wicked pride and cupidity;
similarly, about knights and their knightly service.
Christ's words to the bride asking her
how it stands with the world, and she answers
that it is like an open sack to which everyone senselessly runs,
and about Christ's severe and just condemnation of such people.
Jesus Christ's words to the bride
about not putting trust in dreams but, rather,
being wary of them, no matter how happy or sad they are,
and about how the devil mixes falsehoods
with truth in dreams, because of which many errors occur
in the world, and about how the prophets did not err,
because they truly loved God above all things.
The Mother's words to the Son about the bride,
and Christ's answer to his Mother.
Then the Mother's words about what is meant
by the lion and the lamb, and about how God permits
some things to happen because of human ingratitude
and impatience that otherwise would not happen to them.
Christ's words to the bride explaining the meaning
of a Christian death and in what way a person dies
well or badly, and about how the friends of God
should not be troubled if they see God's servants
dying a harsh bodily death.
The Mother's words to the daughter
about how priests with lawful faculties of absolution,
no matter what kind of sinners they themselves are,
are able to absolve from sins;
the same applies to the sacrament of the Eucharist.
The Mother's words to the daughter
describing good character and righteous works
in God's friends as door posts; and about how God's servants
should stay away from disparagement.
The Mother's words to the daughter
likening bad pastors to a worm
gnawing away at the roots of a tree.
Christ's words to the bride likening the body
to a ship and the world to the sea,
and about how free will can lead souls to heaven or to hell,
and the comparison of earthly beauty to a glass.
The bride's lamentation before the divine majesty,
because the four sisters, Humility, Abstinence,
Contentment, and Charity, daughters of Jesus Christ the King,
are now, alas, regarded as worthless, and the sisters Pride,
Desire, Excess, and Simony, daughters of King Devil,
are now called noblewomen.
The bride's warning to a certain nobleman
about restoring unjustly acquired property,
and about the voice of an angel
announcing a harsh sentence against him.
The Son's words to the bride about
how we ought to beware of temptations from the devil,
and his description of the devil as an enemy of the state,
and of God as a mother hen, his power and wisdom as wings,
his mercy as feathers, and the people as chickens.
The Son's words to the bride about a king
and how he should work to increase God's honor
and love for souls, and about his sentencing,
if he fails to do so.
The bride's symbolic vision of the church,
its explanation, which concerns the moderation and attitude
that the pope ought to maintain regarding
his own person and regarding the cardinals
and other prelates of Holy Mother Church,
and especially about the attitude of humility.
The bride's unfathomable vision of the judgment
of a multitude of persons still in life, in which she heard:
"If people would rectify their sins,
I, too, will lighten their sentence."
The bride's admirable and terrible vision
about a soul led before the judge,
and about the arguments of God and the book's judgment
against the soul and the soul's evidence against herself,
and about the various astounding punishments
inflicted on her in purgatory.
The bride's terrible vision of a man and woman,
and an angel's spiritual explanation to the bride
concerning the amazing vision
and containing many amazing points.
The Virgin's words to the bride
about how she is prepared to defend every widow
and every virgin and every wife in whom she sees
an upright intention and a love for her Son above all else.
The Mother's words to the bride
about the happy spiritual birth of someone
brought up in the worst kinds of sins and how it was
obtained by the prayers and tears of God's servants.
The Mother's words to the daughter about how,
due to the prayers of God's servants,
she wants to love a certain boy
and equip him with spiritual weapons.
The Mother's words to the daughter about a man
not being saddened because of a correction.
The Mother's words to the daughter
about how Rome must first be cleansed of the tares
with a sharp iron sickle, then with fire, then with a pair of oxen.
Christ's figurative words to the bride,
and their explanation in which Christ is described
as a ruler on pilgrimage, his body as a treasure,
the church as a house, priests as guardians.
The true Lord has honored these priests
with a sevenfold honor. Also about how God complains
that wicked priests abuse him with a sevenfold abuse,
and how they turn the seven vestments,
which they should have, into seven vices.
Christ's words to the bride about
how three duties belong to the priest:
first, to consecrate the body of Christ;
second, to have purity of body and spirit;
third, to care for his congregation.
Also about how he should have a book and oil;
and about how a priest is an angel of the Lord,
because his office is greater than that of an angel.
The bride's words to God about a
pleasing way of praying in God's sight.
About how the devil appeared to the bride
during the elevation of the body of Christ,
speaking to her and trying to prove by argument
that what was being elevated was not the body of Christ.
An angel of the Lord appeared to her right away
to comfort her and tell her not to trust the devil.
Also, about how Christ appears and forces the devil
to tell her the truth, and about how the body of Christ
is received by the wicked as well as the good,
and concerning the proper remedy in temptations
regarding the body of Christ.
In the bride's presence, the Lord chides
a priest who is burying a person who had died
in patient suffering. About how Christ will come to wicked priests
with seven spiritual plagues and seven bodily ones,
and about how that soul obtained heavenly glory
for the sake of her patient suffering and other merits.
How the devil appeared to the bride
with the intention of deceiving her
through specious arguments in regard to the sacrament
of the body of Christ, and about how Christ came to her assistance
and forced the devil to tell her the truth,
and about the assurance and beneficial instruction
Christ gives to the bride concerning
his glorious body in the sacrament.
The Mother's words to the daughter
comparing her Son to a poor peasant,
and about how troubles and persecutions
occur to good and bad alike, though they lead the good
by patience toward purification and reward.
The Mother's admonishment to her daughter
with a simile to show how God's friends
should not weary of nor leave off their work of preaching;
also, about the great reward for such preachers.
The Mother's words to the daughter
about how the prudent possession of temporal goods
does no harm, provided that the desire
to possess them is not disordered.
Christ's words to the bride disclosing his magnificence,
and about how all things proceed according
to his designs, with the exception of sinners' wretched souls.
Figurative examples are given concerning all this.
Also, about how the will must be guarded
in one's actions.
The Mother's words to her daughter about a fox,
and about how the devil is like a fox,
and about how the devil, like a clever fox,
deceives people with many and varied temptations,
and tries all he can to deceive all those
whom he sees making progress in virtue.
Christ's words to the bride comparing the good conduct
and good deeds of the clergy to clear water
and their bad conduct and bad deeds
to filthy, brutish water.
The Mother's words to her daughter narrating
in order the passion of her blessed Son,
and describing her Son's beauty and form.
Christ puts loving questions to the bride,
and she gives humble answers to him,
and about how Christ submitted three praiseworthy states
to the choice of the bride: the state of virginity,
the married state, and the widowed state.
The words of Christ concerning the sisters
of the risen Lazarus, and about how (as I believe)
the sisters stand for the bride and her daughter,
Lazarus for the soul, the Jews for envious persons,
and about how God has shown the latter
greater mercy than he did for the sisters of Lazarus,
and about how people who talk much but do little
become indignant against those who do good deeds.
The Virgin's words to the bride
concerning how she should not be upset
about the knight who was declared to be dead
and shown to her as though dead.
Christ's words to his bride;
John the Baptist's words of praise to Christ,
and the devout prayers he pours forth in Christ's presence
on behalf of Christians and especially for a certain knight.
Through John's prayers, the knight,
with his own hands and with the helping hands
of the glorious Virgin and of Peter and Paul,
is armed and decorated with spiritual weapons,
that is, with the virtues. Also, what each of these
bodily weapons signifies, and about praying well.
The bride's words of prayer and praise
to Christ and the Virgin. The Virgin's consoling reply
to the daughter, showing her that God in his righteous decision
often lets his power become more manifest through
the lies of the devil. And about how tribulations
lead to spiritual benefits.
The Virgin's words to the daughter showing her
who God's friends are. Also about how few of them
are found in modern times, no matter whether one adduces
the state of the laity or of the clergy. And about why God
who is rich loves poverty, and why he chose the poor
and not the rich, and for what purpose riches
were conceded to the church.
The bride's words to Christ declaring
the great mercy that he had shown her.
Christ's words to the bride confirming
his same sweet mercy toward her. And about how he
chose her as a vessel to be filled with wine
in order to give God's servants through her wine to drink.
Also, the bride's thankful and humble answer to Christ.
The bride's divinely revealed words or, rather,
words from the sweet mouth of the glorious Virgin,
promulgated clearly, directly, and in an unveiled manner,
instructing and comforting the bride,
and about how these words must be transmitted to the pope,
the vicar of the Lord, and how they warn
of the downfall of the church.
The noteworthy preface to the useful instruction
about the conduct of life that Christ prescribed
to the bride for a priest attached to her,
containing many excellent points.
Wise and profitable teaching to a certain priest
concerning how he should conduct his life
both spiritually and bodily, given by the bride of Christ,
inspired in her by God.
The Virgin's reply, I believe, to the bride concerning
three men for whom the bride was interceding before God.
Tears that are meritorious and tears that are not.
About how love for God grows through meditation
on the humility of Christ. And how fear (not filial or initial fear)
may be good.
Christ speaks to the bride and tells her
that a devout soul like a bride
should have a lovely mouth, clean ears, modest eyes,
and a steadfast heart. He gives a very beautiful spiritual
explanation of all the body parts mentioned.
Christ speaks to the bride and tells her
that she should love him as a good servant
loves his master, as a good son loves his father,
and as a faithful wife loves her husband
from whom she ought never to be separated.
He gives a spiritual and profitable explanation of all this.
Christ speaks to the bride and describes three men
who fell because of women. The first is compared
to a crowned donkey. The second had the heart of a hare,
and the third is compared to a basilisk.
Woman must therefore always be subject to man.
Christ speaks to the bride and tells her
that two pages of a book are opened before him.
Mercy is written three times on one page,
justice on the other. He warns her to be converted
to mercy while she still has time so that she will
not afterward be punished by justice.
The Mother of God says that she is like a flower
from which bees gather sweet honey.
The bees are the servants and chosen ones of God
who continually gather the nectar of grace from her
and who have spiritual wings and spiritual feet
and a spiritual sting.
Christ speaks to the bride and tells her
that she should keep her body beautiful and unblemished.
He compares all the parts of the body in a spiritual sense
to the perfect love of God and of neighbor,
especially of the friends of God. He adds that she should
do in a spiritual way what the phoenix does in a physical way,
that is, to collect wood and burn herself up.
Christ speaks to the bride and tells her
that all creation is according to his will
except for human beings. He also says that there
are three kinds of men in this world.
They can be compared to three boats traveling on the sea,
the first of which runs into danger and perishes,
the second of which is carried by the waves,
the third of which is steered well.
Christ speaks to the bride and tells her
about the way a spiritual knight should behave in battle, namely,
to trust in God and not in one's own strength.
He gives two short prayers for the knight to say daily.
He also says that the knight should be
armed with the spiritual weapons described here.
Christ speaks and says that his friends
are like his own arm, for, like a good doctor,
he cuts away any decayed flesh or noxious elements
from them and adds healthy flesh to them
by transforming them into himself.
Christ admonishes the bride
to humble herself in four ways, namely,
before those who wield power in the world
and before sinners as well as before the spiritual friends of God
and before those who are poor in the world.
Christ admonishes the bride to make progress
and to persevere in the virtues by imitating the life
of the saints and in this way to become his arm.
He shows how the saints become transformed
into the arm of Christ.
Christ speaks to the bride and gives her three precepts,
namely, to desire nothing but food and clothing,
not to long to have spiritual benefits
except according to God's will, and not to be sad about anything
but her sins and those of others. He also tells her
that those who refuse to convert and purge their sins
through austere penance in this life will be
severely punished at the divine judgment.
Christ teaches the bride beautiful prayers
to say when getting dressed and when going to table
and when going to bed. He admonishes her to be humble
in the way she dresses, and virtuous and
self-controlled in the use of her body.
Christ tells the bride what kind of weapons
belong to the wicked. He explains to her that
if they boast of their sin with the intention of
persevering in it, they shall be laid waste
by the terrible sword of God's severe justice.
The Bridegroom explains to the bride the meaning
of the distance of two feet and the drawing of the sword
spoken of in the above chapter.
Christ speaks to the bride about a certain prelate.
He tells her that a devout soul that loses
the heat of devotion and of holy meditation
due to her own pride and ambition and worldly entanglements
can recuperate divine warmth and light and experience
divine sweetness by humbling herself
perfectly before God.
Christ speaks to the bride and says that sinners
and the lukewarm will be shot by four arrows,
that is, by the four rebukes contained herein,
to make them repent and let themselves be humbly
led back to the reformation of their lives.
Christ speaks to the bride and laments
over his Jewish crucifiers. He also laments over
the Christians who scorn him along with his charity
and justice by presumptuously and knowingly sinning
against his commandments and by spurning
the church's sentences of excommunication under
the pretext of God's mercy. For this he threatens them
with the fury and wrath of his justice.
Christ speaks to the bride and tells her
that she is like a pipe of the Holy Spirit
through which he makes lovely music in the world
for his own glory and for the benefit of people.
For this reason, he wants to coat her with the silver
of virtuous conduct and wisdom on the outside
and with the gold of humility and purity
of heart on the inside.
The Mother of God says that her Son's heart
is most sweet, most clean, and most pleasant,
so abounding in love that even if a sinner were standing
at the very door of perdition and cried out to him
with a purpose of amendment, he would be immediately freed.
One reaches the heart of God through the humility
of true contrition and through the devout and frequent
contemplation of his passion.
The bride is shown the judgment of the soul
of a monk before Christ the judge.
The Blessed Virgin intercedes for him
and the devil accuses him savagely of grave sins.
While at prayer, the bride of Christ
saw in a vision how Blessed Denis
prayed to the Virgin Mary for the kingdom of France.
Together with Blessed Denis and other saints,
the Mother of God entreats her Son on behalf of France
and because of the war between the two kings,
who are compared to two ferocious beasts.
Christ speaks to the bride about how peace should be
established between the kings of France and England.
If the kings do not heed it,
they shall be punished severely.
Christ tells the bride not to be afraid
to break her fast out of obedience to her spiritual father,
because it is not a sin. He also admonishes her to stand firm,
to resist temptations continuously, and to have the firm intention
of persevering in the good example
set by the Virgin Mary, David, and Abraham.
Christ encourages the bride, that is, the soul,
always and lovingly to maintain pure contrition,
godly love, and unwavering obedience.
He condemns those who despise obedience,
abstinence, and noble patience. He also warns a spiritual man
not to allow his conscience to become gradually coarse
and blind under a pretense of light.
Christ speaks to the bride and tells her that
three saints were most especially pleasing to him.
These were the Virgin Mary, Blessed John the Baptist,
and Mary Magdalene.
The Mother says that spiritual persons,
once they have been converted through penance and charity
and contrition and patience, ought to buy back
all the time they have lost earlier so that they
do not offer empty nutshells to God.
Christ instructs the bride about the difference
between the good spirit and the devil's deception,
and about how one must respond to each of them.
Christ speaks to the bride about three kinds of law,
namely, ecclesial law, imperial law, and common law.
He admonishes her to live according to a fourth kind of law,
namely, the divine, spiritual law, that is, to live in humility,
in unwavering, perfect, and catholic faith and in divine charity,
putting God ahead of everything. In this way,
spiritual honors and riches in heaven are acquired
in the glory of eternity.
Christ speaks to the bride and tells her
to beware especially of the vice of pride,
not to be puffed up over her physical beauty
or her possessions or her family. The proud man is compared
to a butterfly with broad wings and a tiny body.
Christ admonishes the bride to live humbly
and not to care about fame or a great name,
for he did not choose great scholars
to preach the gospel but humble fishermen.
Christ warns the bride to beware of dealing
with worldly people. That is called the devil's roast.
The Virgin Mary teaches her to have an
upright intention in all her virtuous actions
in order to give more glory to God,
for many people serve God in their activity,
but their wrongful intention casts shadows
on all the good they do.
Christ speaks to the bride about how to free
a certain person possessed by the devil.
He tells her that the soul has inner,
spiritual limbs just as the body has outer, bodily limbs.
The Lord gives a beautiful explanation of all this.
Christ's lament to the bride
about the Gentiles and the Jews,
but especially about bad Christians
because they do not receive the holy sacraments
with devotion and purity as they ought,
and because they are not mindful of creation
and redemption and divine consolation.
God himself runs out to meet those who truly desire him;
he comforts them like a loving father
and makes difficult things easy for them.
Christ speaks to the bride and says that the Father,
by fulfilling their good intention to do good,
draws to himself those whom he sees gladly
changing their bad will to a good will
through a desire to make amends for past offenses.
The Mother describes seven good things
in Christ and their seven opposites
that people give him in return.
Christ tells the bride that there are two kinds of pleasure,
spiritual and carnal; spiritual pleasure is
when the soul delights in the kindnesses of God.
It is not the cowl that makes the monk
but the virtue of obedience and the observance of the rule.
True contrition of heart along with a purpose
of amendment snatches the soul from the hands of the devil,
even if perfect contrition is lacking.
About how the life of a certain dissolute
and lukewarm man resembles a narrow and dangerous bridge,
and about how, if he does not soon turn himself around
by leaping onto the ship of life, penance, and virtue,
he will be cast headlong by his enemy,
the devil, down into the deep abyss.
Christ defends his bride, Birgitta, that is,
a soul converted from worldliness to the spiritual life,
whom her father and mother, sister and brother
tried to dissuade from his love
and from chastity in marriage.
About how Blessed Agnes places on the bride of Christ
a crown with seven precious stones, namely,
the gems of patience in suffering.
God's Mother speaks to her daughter,
the bride of Christ, and offers a lovely allegory
of seven animals denoting four kinds of immoral men
and three kinds of virtuous men.
The Virgin Mary spoke with the bride of her Son
about a certain bishop for whom the bride
was praying devoutly. Here she gives noteworthy instructions
and offers a virtuous model according to
which true bishops should live and govern themselves
and their subjects spiritually and devoutly.
The Virgin Mary tells the bride while she is praying
for a hermit, a friend of hers, who had died, that,
before his body is buried beneath the earth,
his soul will be brought into heaven.
The Virgin Mother's answer to the question
of her Son's bride who was praying for a certain monk
in a position of doubt as to whether it would be
more acceptable to God for him to enjoy
the sweetness of mental consolation
by never leaving his place of hermitage,
or to come down from time to time
in order to instruct the souls of his neighbors.
Two years after the bride had the vision
about the beast and the fish
contained in Book 4 Chapter 2 above,
Christ appeared to her and gave a most clear
and notable explanation of the very obscure vision:
The beast and fish stand for sinners and heathen;
those that catch it, for righteous and virtuous people.
Many years after the bride had the vision
about the seven animals in this same book (Chapter 125),
Christ explained certain things that were missing
in the explanation of that vision, as follows.
A revelation given on Monte Gargano
concerning the excellence of the angels.
Christ speaks about the five good gifts
given to priests and their five opposites
that bad priests do.
Christ compares himself to Moses
leading Israel through the Red Sea
where the waters stood like walls to right and left,
and about how Israel, that is, bad priests,
neglect Christ and select the golden calf, that is, the world,
and about how Christ honored priests by means of seven orders,
from which they have turned away in seven ways.
Christ says that he has given more honor
to priests than to all the angels and other men,
but that they provoke him more than all the others.
Their damnation is illustrated
in the soul of one priest eternally damned.
Christ shows how much kindness he has shown to priests.
Yet they, as ungrateful as an adulterous bride,
scorn Christ and love three other lovers,
namely, the world, the flesh, and the devil.
He demonstrates this with the example of a priest
who had recently died and was eternally damned.
The pious handmaid of Christ,
Lady Birgitta of blessed memory,
received the following revelations in a divinely inspired vision
while she was at prayer. They are addressed to the
Roman pontiffs Clement VI, Innocent VI, Urban V,
and Gregory XI. They deal with the return of the Apostolic See
and the Roman Curia to Rome and the reformation
of the church by command of almighty God.
Two years before the Jubilee Year, Christ gives the bride
the words contained here and orders her
to send them to Pope Clement in order that he should
establish peace between the kings of France and England
and come to Italy and proclaim the Jubilee Year.
The Reverend Lord Hemming, bishop of Åbo,
and Brother Peter, prior of the Cistercian monastery of Alvastra
in the kingdom of Sweden.
A revelation touching on Pope Urban,
received by the bride of Christ in Rome
and concerning the confirmation of the Rule of the Holy Savior
and the indulgences of St. Peter in Chains
granted by Christ to the cloister
of the Blessed Virgin in Vadstena.
This is a revelation that the bride of Christ
received in Rome concerning the same Pope Urban
before his return to Avignon in the year of the Lord 1370.
She presented it to him herself in Montefiascone.
The following is the first revelation sent to Pope Gregory XI
through his Lordship Latinus Orsini.
Note the following four instructions to the pope:
that he should come to Rome with humility,
that he should have a mind to stay,
that he should bewail the perdition of souls,
that he should try to renew the church, etc.
If he does not do all these things, his life will be cut short,
as stated above after the words "Now again."
Thus, it is not enough for the pope merely to come to Rome,
but he must carry out all four of the instructions above.
Here follows the second vision brought
by his Lordship De Nola to the same Pope Gregory XI.
A revelation for the same pope
given to the bride in Naples
when she had returned from Jerusalem.
She did not send this revelation to the pope,
because no divine command was given to her.
A revelation for the same Pope Gregory
given to the bride in Naples and delivered to him
by a hermit who had renounced the episcopacy.
The fourth revelation sent by Blessed Birgitta
to the pope in the month of July
in the year of our Lord 1373. She wrote this
to a certain hermit who had once been bishop
and who was then with the pope in Avignon.
The vision received by the bride of Christ
concerning the judgment of the soul
of a deceased pope.